Antivaxxers claim Covid jabs have killed 200k during Marlow protest

A group of antivax activists campaigning against Covid-19 vaccines falsely claimed they have 'probably' killed over 200,000 people, during a protest in Marlow on Wednesday morning.

Setting up at around 11am on the Westhorpe roundabout just off the A404, the protesters held up signs such as ‘thousands dead from Covid jabs’ and ‘2020 – safe and effective, 2022 – sudden unexpected deaths’ to passing motorists, beckoning them to beep their horns if in agreement.

Speaking to Bucks Radio, one protester told us: “Every single vaccine in history is provably rubbish because there has never been any double-blind control study of any vaccine in history.”

He went on to claim that hundreds of thousands have died from the Covid-19 vaccine, stating: “I think 1% have probably been reported. Currently it’s about 2,005 but I would really at least times that by ten, so that’s twenty thousand odd and I’d probably times it by ten again, so it’s probably 200,000 at least.”

When asked how many people he believes have died from Covid-19 in the UK, the protester denied the virus exists.

It’s unclear where this group are getting their data from but a common misreading of datasets, equating all deaths registered following a vaccination jab as being due to the vaccine, is commonplace.

The latest official data available from the US’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that from over 619 million doses given, nine deaths have been identified as “causally associated” with Covid-19 vaccination.

In England and Wales, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that up to August 2022, there have been 45 deaths with the Covid-19 vaccine registered as an “underlying cause” from almost 140 million jabs given.

For context, between 2016-2020, on average 219 people died each year in the UK from taking paracetamol.

We reached out to clinical epidemiologist Dr Deepti Gurdasani, a senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, about the protesters claims. She responded: “There is data from randomized control trials, as well as real world data on millions of people who have been vaccinated.

“We know these vaccines are safe and effective and that their benefits far outweigh the harms.

“It is really discouraging to see how misinformation and disinformation around vaccination has spread.

“The impact of this is sadly going to be avoidable deaths and illness.”

Thames Valley Police said: “We were aware of this protest which was peaceful and ended at around midday.”

[PICTURE: Antivax protester in Marlow on 5th October]